Organisation Behavior Topic 6

Organisation Behavior Topic 6

Quality of Work Life (QWL): Meaning and its impact on Performance, Ways of its Enhancement.

Quality of work life (QWL) refers to the favourableness or unfavourableness of a job environment for the people working in an organisation. The traditional management (like scientific management) gave inadequate attention to human values. In the present scenario, needs and aspirations of the employees are changing. Employers are now redesigning jobs for better QWL.

“QWL is a process of work organisations which enable its members at all levels to actively; participate in shaping the organizations environment, methods and outcomes. This value based process is aimed towards meeting the twin goals of enhanced effectiveness of organisations and improved quality of life at work for employees. ”

—The American Society of Training and Development

Nature and Scope of Quality of Work Life:

Quality of work life is the quality of relationship between employees and total working environment.

A Great Place to work is where “You Trust the people you work for, have pride in what you do, and enjoy the people you work with.”

Quality of work life represents concern for human dimensions of work.

Importance of Quality of Work Life:

1. Enhance stakeholder relations and credibility: A growing number of companies that focus on QWL improve their relationships with the stakeholders like consumers, suppliers, employees etc.

2. Increase productivity as it helps to minimize absenteeism. The result can be both enhanced productivity and strengthened employee commitment and loyalty.

3. Attracting new skilled employees and retaining existing ones. This results in savings for the employer as it avoids the cost of losing an experienced worker and recruiting someone new. Employers who support their staff in this way often gain loyalty from the staff.

How to improve Quality of Work Life?

1. Recognition of work life issues like why people are not happy, do they need training, why employee morale is poor and addressing those issues by the Board and other important officials of the company.

2. Commitment to improvement through staff recognition, introduction of reward systems and support programmes.

3. Quality of work life (QWL) teams to address loss of morale, lack of trust, increased intensity of work, reward, recognition etc.

4. Training to facilitators to improve QWL.

5. Conduct focus groups and discuss the questions like What brought you here today?, What do you want the organisation should do for you?

6. Analyze information from focus group.

7. Flexible work hours so that professional and personal life can be managed together.

Problems in Improving the QWL:

1. Poor reward-recognition: When employers want to get the best from employees but do not give them reward and recognition, people will not be committed to work.

2. Dead-end jobs: Jobs which deprive employees of self-development and growth opportunities lead to high dissatisfaction and disloyalty.

3. Managing by intimidation: Mistreating people and managing them by threats and embarrassment leads to employees’ dissatisfaction and weakens their commitment.

4. Negative working environment: Non-acceptance by colleagues, non-cooperation, too much politics, and negative behaviour by colleagues, supervisors and other people in the company also hamper commitment.

5. No job security: One of the major needs of employees is job security. If the employee feels that he can lose his job anytime, he would not be committed towards company’s goals.

6. Negative attitude: Some people by nature are not committed to anything and anyone and as such they would not be committed to their employers also. This negative attitude is antithetical to improving QWL.

Questions

What do you understand by Quality of Work Life? How it is important for any organisation?